The patch demos on M-Audio's site sound pretty good, except the distortion which is just crappy, as always. Finally someone makes a synth that doesn't sound weak and mushy. It can take a lot of beating, has sharp transients, good adsr with enough attack. Filter is OK. It doesn't sound as good and can't replace my analog synths at all, but it could be a good addition, but I'd only buy it if it was available as a software plugin.

As I said in another thread, this is one of the last projects I worked on before leaving Avid/M-Audio/Digidesign. I still have the unit that I was doing sound design on (mine is actually purple not white). My opinion may be biased but I think it sounds great for the price point. Using FM in conjunction with oscillator sync results in some really cool tones. FMing a drum kit is also a lot of fun. The filter overdrive sounds really good to my ears and there are soooo many wave types to choose from (sampled from Plan-B Model 15, Harvestman Zorlon Cannon, Roland SH-5, TR-808 just to name a few).

The guy who managed the project is a true synth nerd he put a lot of effort/passion into making this what it is. It was a lot of fun to work with him.

I just received my Venom yesterday, so I'm just scratching the surface. Like Justin said, great sounding synth for it's price point. Easy to tweak(in my opinion) with it's grid style interface, but the added software editor is excellent. My only gripe is the build quality. Definitely won't be gigging with it, but then again, I'm not a gigging musician. I have many synths in my studio, and there will definitely be a welcome spot here for my Venom.

twjmusicgroup wrote:I just received my Venom yesterday, so I'm just scratching the surface. Like Justin said, great sounding synth for it's price point. Easy to tweak(in my opinion) with it's grid style interface, but the added software editor is excellent. My only gripe is the build quality. Definitely won't be gigging with it, but then again, I'm not a gigging musician. I have many synths in my studio, and there will definitely be a welcome spot here for my Venom.

got mine yesterday too. very nice sounds. the synth's a lttle quiet through the headphone jack, but that's no real problem. can't wait to get the s/w up and running in conjunction! i don't have any of the 'big' analog synths, but i do have a k2600RS to compare it with, so we'll see if it holds its own with a big h/w synth from the past. you're right about build quality, but for the price, you could 'run it into the ground' gigging and get another one. (especially if you're making any money gigging.)

aaastronomer wrote:can't wait to get the s/w up and running in conjunction!

Just a heads up. When you install Vyzex, you may get a pop-up asking you to upgrade to a newer version. I upgraded to the newer version, but for some reason it didn't work. It may be that I'm using an older PC too. I downgraded to the original version on the disc and it worked fine. Enjoy.

aaastronomer wrote:can't wait to get the s/w up and running in conjunction!

Just a heads up. When you install Vyzex, you may get a pop-up asking you to upgrade to a newer version. I upgraded to the newer version, but for some reason it didn't work. It may be that I'm using an older PC too. I downgraded to the original version on the disc and it worked fine. Enjoy.

thanks for the heads up. i'm going to try the s/w tomorrow. listened to all of the sounds in Bank A last night. an exhausting collection of really great sounds (many i've heard before. many currently in use in lots of 'current music'.) a fine struggle indeed.

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to run the software on my laptop instead of my pc with Cubase on so I could have my DAW open on one pc and have the Synth editor on my laptop and just stream the audio into my soundcard?

I want a hardware VA Synth, looks like this maybe what I want - good price too...

€200 is ridiculously cheap for a hardware synthesizer. With thw weak Euro against the Swedish Krona, that's literally the same price as a typical VST plug-in.

Still, even at that price I'm not sure I'd buy it. It requires an editor to access all parameters, so you get all the drawbacks of a hardware synth with none of the advantages. But If you're on the market for a 49-key keyboard and don't need a ton of knobs and sliders, then it's a steal...